Insight: Protecting tall buildings with today's new world threats

18th November 2019

Most city skylines are dominated by tall buildings and it makes perfect sense; they can be environmentally friendly, leaving more space on the ground for infrastructure, greenery and more convenient public spaces. That said, there is a rather clear association between the density of a city and its number (and height) of skyscrapers, so as the UK population continues to grow, so will the number of tall buildings in major towns and cities. The New London Architecture (NLA) London Tall Buildings Survey 2018 reports that tall buildings are becoming the ‘new normal’ for the UK capital. The annual survey was released in March 2019 and recorded a 6% rise in the number of buildings over 20 storeys planned for London alone since last year. 

Does high-rise mean high risk?

Every tall building is of course unique and some may have more complex layouts than others, however, many believe the sheer height of these buildings makes them potential targets for natural disasters and terrorist activities, whilst also being more vulnerable to fire. Today's tall buildings often blend retail, commercial, hospitality, entertainment and residential functions, and it’s crucial to ensure staff, customers, assets and the building itself has high standards of safety and security – and that’s where cutting edge technology can play a pivotal role, such as Synapse; Zinc’s incident reporting, analysis and risk management platform. 

Utilising new technology to minimise risks and improve safety

Synapse is packed with cutting-edge features, so it doesn’t just allow staff and security teams to quickly and easily report a wide range of incident types, it provides real time reporting to enable proactive planning and optimised decision making during major incidents – reducing response time and enhancing the safety of people, assets and locations. The physical nature of tall buildings calls for different security emphases, but Synapse gives Security Operation Centres (SOCs) access to high quality quantitative data in a simple and intuitive dashboard format for strategic security analysis. Below are just a few of the key qualities at a glance:

Risk profile for each site or location

Combining government and crime data along with white-labelled intelligence around the property to uncover significant risk challenges.

A mobile app for simple self-reporting

Quickly and easily report a wide range of incident types. The user simply selects the type of incident that has occurred which loads dynamic question sets specific to that user’s role and the incident being reported. This triggers automatic workflows ensuring all of the necessary information is captured in the report as it happens, such as how, where and when the incident took place and who was involved.

Auditing & Analysis 

Another powerful feature is the central intelligence database for collating the reported data, analysing intelligence, and enabling resources and actions to be deployed in a streamlined and efficient manner. This is essentially the engine room for data evaluation and trend analysis, allowing for detailed reports and trend data for each type of incident or location. It makes the client and their teams aware of critical risks. 

Compliance 

Synapse offers complete management over form templates as well as validation, communications and actions for each incident type, ensuring high quality quantitative data is captured for compliance purposes.

Training / Tutorials

Through a series of digital live video tutorials, users can quickly learn the key features in a safe environment. They can also test the system, create incidents, load data and perform trend reviews without fear of impacting on genuine data or reports. 

Floor Plans

Floor plans can be uploaded to the system with ease, whilst users can highlight exits and other critical areas that the emergency services may need in the event of a serious incident.

Lift / Elevator Entrapment

The communication of reported data is a key aspect of Synapse. Automatic alerts and notifications can be generated, sending notifications to specified contacts using preferred communication channels. These forms of communication can be utilised to alert engineers of trapped persons, whilst prompting the attendance of emergency services (if required).

Suspicious Packages

As soon as a dubious package is identified, users can collect evidence, manage the specific risks associated with crime scene, and initiate an evacuation if the incident requires it. 

Protest, Activism & Civil Unrest

To enhance the safety of people, assets and locations during protests, users can access clear procedures to follow, from the moment a protest begins through to its satisfactory conclusion. Procedures include communication with the protestors, deployment of personnel and collecting of evidence.

Lost Property

Reporting officers who encounter lost property can also access clear procedures to follow for lost, stolen or found property. The steps covered include the security, handling and return of such property.

Violence

From verbal abuse to threatening behaviour, disruptive behaviour, vandalism, security breaches and assault, Synapse allows users to record all types of violent incidents, ensuring company policy and protocols are followed at all times, whilst ensuring they can communicate incidents to response personnel, emergency services and key stakeholders.

Critical Alarms

Procedure must be followed meticulously for every type of alarm, from smoke alarms to heat alarms, as well as intruder and duress. Synapse makes this process clear and simple in such pressing situations, prompting the deployment of security staff, verification of alarm status and the attendance of the emergency services.

Crisis Communication

With a comprehensives range of communication templates, Synapse will interpret the issue and start the communication plan to ensure relevant individuals and teams are notified. The system enables users to manage a wide range of notifications including email, global SMS, MMS and in-app messages, ensuring deliverability using intelligent delivery platforms and features. 

Fire & Evacuations

Protocols in the event of fires and other types of evacuations are tailored to a company’s structured evacuation procedures and plans, and the system offers management teams a trackable record of emergency services and actions, helping to streamline processes and guarantee best practice if such as event occurs. 

User Preferences

Users can amend their preferences within the mobile and web app to customise their experience, with configurations including: 

  • Content/alert preferences
  • Location-based radius settings
  • Responses
  • Notification method priorities
  • Management of tasks
  • Live tracking of activity
  • Self-administration of personal data

If you’re interested in learning more about Synapse, or wish to speak to a member o four team about the features that can be particularly useful for businesses operating from tall buildings, please call us today on +44 (0)1604 598999 or email us at info@zinc.systems. 

Helping customers protect what matters to them.

Learn more: www.zinc.systems or contact us for a detailed demonstration
by calling +44 (0)1604 598999 or email us at info@zinc.systems

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